Niskayuna boys' lacrosse topped by Darien

Lindley scores 9 goals to lead the Blue Wave past the Silver Warriors

Darien boys' lacrosse standout Kevin Lindley produced a career-best game last April in helping the Blue Wave beat Niskayuna. Saturday evening at Union College, Lindley proved to be a tsunami against the Silver Warriors.

After scoring five times on five shots in the first half, Lindley tallied four more goals in the second half to lead Darien a 17-9 victory over Niskayuna in the annual meeting between the two lacrosse powers.

The Blue Wave (3-0), rated No. 15 in the country in USA Today's Super 25 rankings, recorded their 34th straight win Saturday. It also proved to be a milestone verdict for veteran coach Jeff Brameier as he surpassed New Canaan mentor Howard Benedict (1972-2007) for the most career wins in Connecticut with 552.

"I think the thing that stands out about our team is how much we prepare," Lindley said. "We watched three hours of film on them. I picked up what the goalie's tendencies are. I think what this team does, better than in any of the others in my four years, is play like it is our last time that we're playing. That carries us through."

In 2016 at Darien, Lindley registered seven goals and two assists in a 20-16 decision over the Silver Warriors in the third game of the season. Saturday, like a year ago, the Blue Wave provided Niskayuna its first defeat after two wins.

Also like a year ago, Niskayuna built some momentum in the second half and threatened Darien. As was so often the case Saturday, the Blue Wave overwhelmed Niskayuna moving from defense to offense.

Seconds after Niskayuna's Griffin King hit the pipe with a shot, Lindley was at the other end of the field setting up Logan McGovern for his fourth goal of the game to establish a 13-8 lead.

"We do transition work with our defense probably 45 minutes to an hour every day in practice. It is our culture," Lindley said. "We're a fast transition team at Darien. That is by far our strongest point."

"I know that is what they do," Niskayuna coach Mike Vorgang said of the Blue Wave transition game. "The disappointing part for us was not canning in a few more goals when we had the opportunity to. ... We need to be more efficient. To beat a team like that with a brand new defense, we really needed to be efficient. I knew they were going to score."

Niskayuna trailed 10-5 at halftime as Lindley, who is headed to play next at Loyola, and McGovern combined to score eight goals.

"I think it would have been easy many times in that game to put our heads down," Vorgang said. "As everyone knows, lacrosse is a game of runs and we made a couple of runs. A lot of mistakes we made are correctable."

One aspect Vorgang never has to worry about is the production and energy level provided by senior midfielder Michael Doxie.

In addition to scoring two goals and adding two assists Saturday, Doxie kept charging hard long after the result for the Silver Warriors was obviously going to be a loss.

"Mike Doxie's effort and attitude out there is irreplaceable," Vorgang said. "That kid has a motor and you can't teach that."

"A game like this helps tremendously to get us ready for later in the season and hopefully a run into the state tournament," Sweeney said. "We're playing against kids that are high level with a lot of experience."